Review: & JULIET Is Revisionist, Gleeful Fun at OC's Segerstrom Center
9 / 10
Bursting with buoyant energy, witty humor, and lots of cleverly-used pop anthems to reframe a familiar story, & JULIET is a funny, entertaining, revisionist good time. While jukebox musicals tend to lean heavily on songs as the superficial anchor for a show, here the format is elevated to support a fairly 'new' story, so the music used ends up being a bonus perk, if you will, for an engaging set of situations and characters that are entertaining in their own right. But when the nostalgic songs do arrive in their given placement, they are all carefully curated and re-contextualized, offering ironic, sometimes poignant, or even empowering counterpoints to the characters' individual journeys.
